Friday, March 18, 2011

Safeguard Against Pickpockets

(This article by Sean O'Neill appeared this morning in Frommer's newsletter. Since nothing ruins a vacation like being pickpocketed, here are the ways to foil a thief.) How to Avoid Being Pickpocketed by Sean O'Neill

Think You Won't Be Pickpocketed? Think again. You may be in more danger while traveling abroad than you suspect. In a typical major city, more than 100 people may be pickpocketed on any given day.

We've interviewed law enforcement officials and other experts about common fleecing techniques. If you watch out for these five scenarios while traveling, you may be able to beat a pickpocket at his own game.

Where: Front pocket of your pants

Pickability: Low

What to Watch Out For: The human eye has a weakness in how it perceives motion; it has trouble watching an object that arcs rather than moves straight. This means a talented thief can easily distract you by arcing one of his hands in the air. Looking away, you won't notice his free hand robbing you. Even a man who knows he's about to be robbed can be fooled with this technique, according to a 2008 article in the prestigious scientific publication Nature Reviews.

What the Experts Say: Having your wallet in your front pocket is a good defense. It's a relatively difficult spot for someone else to fish objects out of.

Tip: Dunhill has invented a "virtually indestructible" wallet. To open it, you need to press a finger against a digital reader to recognize your fingerprint. The cost? About $825, give or take a few bucks. But putting your wallet in the front pocket of your pants is a good enough security measure. And free.Where: Inside pocket of your jacket

Pickability: Medium

What to Watch Out For: Someone standing in the lobby of your major urban hotel may not be a guest. She may instead be a "spy" casing the lobby. Let's say you pay your bill at the front desk, placing your wallet in an inner pocket of your jacket when you're done. The spy will see this and use her cell phone to contact her accomplice standing outside. She may describe your physical description -- and where you've stashed your wallet. After you exit the hotel, you'll be followed. This second person has been told exactly where to reach for your money -- yet you've never seen each other before.

What the Experts Say: The safest place to stash your money is in a security pouch that you wear under your clothes around your waist. It's one of the most important items on your packing list, besides any medicine you might need.

Tip: Money belts (from $10) can be purchased on Amazon.com.[Wal-Mart sells them for about the same price or less.]

Where: Backpack

Pickability: High

What to Watch Out For: Pickpockets often use objects to divert your attention. For example, the thief may be dressed as a tourist carrying a map. He'll ask for help with directions, distracting you with the map.

What the Experts Say: It's easy for a con artist to open your backpack while you walk. To see video recordings of common techniques, visit the site of a security consultant who has studied pickpockets for more than 20 years (www.bobarno.com).

Tip: Pickpocketing can't always be avoided, especially if you're in a crowd. So it's wise to keep your money in various places around your backpack and other belongings. Visiting multiple countries? Stash a mix of dollar bills and euro coins, which can serve as a universal currency during most emergencies.

Where: Back pocket of your pants

Pickability: High

What to Watch Out For: A pickpocket distracts you with one hand while robbing you with the other. The timeless ploy: He squirts a gooey liquid on you without you realizing it. Then he comes up to you and volunteers to help clean the stain. When he leaves, your money has left with him. Still unaware, you turn to your wife and say, "Aren't the locals nice, dear?"

What the Experts Say: A wallet in a back pocket screams, "Rob me!" If you're going to take the risk, be sure you know what's in it. Limit the number of credit cards you carry.

Tip: Before you travel, e-mail yourself with your credit, debit, and charge card numbers and the international toll-free numbers to call in case you're a victim of theft.

Where: Purse

Pickability: High

What to Watch Out For: A pickpocket will lock eye contact with you as he approaches. Your natural reflex will be to stay focused on his face and upper body. You'll miss what's happening with his hands and with your purse.

What the Experts Say: Leave your purse in a hotel safe. Opt instead for a purse-like pack with a long enough strap that it can be hung diagonally across your body -- this makes purse-snatching more difficult for a thief.

At a café, never hang your purse on the back of your chair. Loop it around a leg of your chair instead, and keep it safe by your feet.

Tip: Store your keys and identification cards away from your money. That way, if your money is stolen (and it's the thing that's going to catch the eye of a thief more readily), the thief won't have any information about you that could enable a follow-up crime.
- By Sean O'Neill

1 comment:

The embassy where I lived recommended specifically against wearing a purse diagonally across your body. Why? Because thieves come by on motorcycles, and grab the purse, and women have been hurt when their purse straps didn't break...and they ended up being dragged.

Better idea: use a purse for a decoy. Put just a little money in it, and no credit cards. Hide your $$ in your underwear.

Experienced pickpockets WILL target your front pockets when they are sitting next to you on public transportation. They will first feel around in their own adjacent pocket, to get you used to the action, then slip their hand in your pocket.

Stack your bills individually, biggest bills on bottom, smallest on top. The pickpocket will be able to get them only one at a time, and will end up with not much for his trouble.

Updated Retire in Mexico--Live Better for Less Money!

The updated 2014 version with the latest rules governing retirement in Mexico is now available!

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Does a year-round temperate climate, a cost-of-living half the US average, and maid service for $10 a day sound tempting? Then Mexico might be the place for you!

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Retire in Mexico--Live Better for Less Money and Europe on a Dime: Five-Star Travel on a One-Star Budget are both available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback or e-book.

Europe on a Dime: Five-Star Travel on a One-Star Budget

When we Baby Boomers* think about touring Europe, we are grateful the days when we carried all our clothes in a backpack and traipsed down the hall to a communal bathroom are long gone, but we wish we could still travel for that $5 a day Arthur Frommer wrote about. We long for a comfortable apartment that's as cheap as a private room in a hostel and gourmet meals for the price of McDonald's hamburger combos.

Most tour companies tell us those desires are unrealistic. They want us to think that travel has to cost hundreds of dollars a day and that professional guidance is needed to plan such trips.

Nothing is further from the truth.

I wrote my book, Europe on a Dime: Five-Star Travel on a One-Star Budget, because I know anyone willing to invest a little time and effort can travel as cheaply, and as comfortably, as David and I do. Planning isn't difficult, but you do need to learn a few tricks.

Some family members traveled to Italy and France last fall, visiting many of the places David and I had seen in recent trips; yet, because their friends, novice planners, organized the trip, they spent far more than the $98 a day David and I did.

They spent a whopping $152 more per day per person than David and I spent, and our accommodations were vastly superior to their B&Bs and hotels. We had a three-bedroom penthouse in Rome, a 16th century charming one-bedroom apartment two blocks from the Duomo in Florence, and a Parisian studio with French balconies just steps from the Metro. What a difference it makes when you have a step-by-step approach that helps you plan a luxurious and frugal trip!

That is why I decided to write this book. I'd like for everyone, regardless of income, to have the benefit of exploring other countries and cultures. I know that anyone who implements the steps in my book will be able to travel frugally, comfortably, and frequently to Europe.

*I wrote this book with Baby Boomers in mind because there are no books on the market to help them plan frugal, yet comfortable, trips. But anyone, of any age, can save money and travel well following the steps in the book. Whether you are eighteen or eighty, this book can help you travel cheaply and stylishly!

Radio Interview

Listen to an interview with Dana Hersey on the Boston radio show, Retire Radio, where we talk about travel, travel tips, and my book, Europe on a Dime: Five-Star Travel on a One-Star Budget. Cut and paste this url: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g39p3rubfs30d1s/bXEaEkkSGU/aircheck%20Dru%20Pearson%20Travel%201-6-13.mp3

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Arthur Frommer's Praise for Tightwad Travel

Arthur Frommer, the founder of Frommer's Travel Guides, thrilled me today by saying some very kind words about my blog:

A retired schoolteacher named Dru, traveling to Europe with her live-in boyfriend, has written a memoir of their experiences in renting a Parisian apartment and a country cottage in the Dordogne of France. Her several essays, which appear at Tightwadtravel.blogspot.com, provide a strong confirmation of the advice I offered in a recent post, arguing that the recent sharp decline in the value of the U.S. dollar has made apartment living the only practical alternative for many cost-conscious American travelers.

Dru found her kitchen-equipped, Left Bank apartment through www.beauparis.com. It cost them 660€ (about $1,000) for 10 nights. Shopping for savory French food in colorful nearby markets, she and her partner averaged $18 per day in dining costs for the two of them -- and had a memorable culinary adventure, devouring the most savory breads and pastries, unbelievable cheeses, awesome patės and roasts in Paris. They avoided what would have been hundreds of extra dollars in restaurant bills. By leading an active life in the French capital -- shopping for their meals, cooking, wandering on foot everywhere they went, visiting countless, far-flung museums and attractions -- they also each lost eight pounds!

They rented their gîte in Dordogne through www.visitperigord.com, spending 290€ (about $460) for seven nights. There, too, they lived like residents of France, walking to markets, making friends with shopkeepers, learning endless tactics of fine dining, experiencing local life.

Dru's several essays are accompanied by excellent photos of the food shops they patronized and, sometimes, of the meals they prepared. Those reminiscences appear following an opening reference by Dru (who doesn't otherwise supply her name; she and David now live in San Diego) to my own blog about the advisability of living in a European residence (primarily an apartment) rather than a hotel. She also comes down hard on organized tours -- and in favor of completely independent travel.

Though I'm a bit prejudiced, I think you'll be fascinated by the adventures of this divorced ex-mom. And I believe it will cause you to choose an apartment over a hotel room for your own next trip to Europe.

France on $70 a Day

The series of articles begins in July with the outline of our plans for the trip, and some August articles deal with the final preparations. See Archives by Subject below.

In September and October, the posts are "live" from France.

You will find a summary of our expenses here and some final thoughts in October articles.

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About Me

I'm a former English teacher who's always suffered from wanderlust. Living four years in Mexico helped, but the wanderlust is incurable and, seemingly, insatiable. I want 365 days of travel a year. The Tightwad Travel blog is my medicine.

About Me

I was born with more wanderlust than money. At the age of six I first saw a world globe and knew I wanted to explore every country on it. Unfortunately, most of my traveling for the next forty years was done vicariously through books and websites. Packing was a snap, but my feet itched to get on a plane.

I finally broke free when my cardiologist diagnosed heart disease. If I didn't get moving soon, I'd be six feet under the ground before I ever got four thousand miles over the ocean. Luckily, surgery fixed my heart condition, and my first trip to Europe sealed my lust for travel.

Travel on a single parent's budget was problematic, but I learned to be frugal both at home and on the road. The more trips I took, the more I wanted to take.

The wanderlust was incurable.

As the millennium approached, it seemed like an auspicious time for a dramatic change. I'd taught English for what I thought was a hundred years, although the state of North Carolina insists it was only 26, and was ready to go on an odyssey instead of teach The Odyssey. My son was happily married, my former students were off making the world a better place, and I was still suffering from wanderlust. I read every book in the library on retirement locations and made three trips to Mexico before I packed my '85 Westfalia van to the rooftop and took off with my dog for an adventure.

Ajijic, just 25 miles south of Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara, was as exotic as I'd hoped. Although I only knew two people there the day I arrived, I quickly made more friends. My days were filled with lazy lunches, camping discoveries, and language lessons. I also edited a newsletter for expatriates and wrote a book about Mexico. (See the book information below.)

After four years, though, I realized that, while Mexico was the perfect retirement choice for many Americans, I had problems fitting in. The Spanish language and I would never be on friendly terms. Try as I might, the French I studied in college kept cropping up. After too many, “buenos dias, monsieurs,” I knew it was time to re-locate. Besides, I missed libraries, T J Maxx, "Newsweek," and fast food.

Tucson seemed like a good compromise. Close enough to Mexico for me to get a culture fix any time I needed and an easy hop on a plane to visit my grandson back in North Carolina. Arizona it would be. My Mexican street dog, the Magnificent Lena, and I made the trip back across the border in my trustworthy van and settled down in the most beautiful and diverse desert in the world. I'd still be there if I hadn't joined a book club.

Although it may be difficult to believe, it is true that a book club changed my life. One of my friends in the group insisted I had to meet her brother. Having endured many disastrous blind dates, I resisted as long as possible, but eventually David and I were introduced two days before Christmas. When he had to leave three days after New Year's, his departure left us both miserable.

After daily phone calls, a thousand e-mails, a dozen commutes, and a couple vacations, I moved in with the most wonderful man in the world. David lives in San Diego County, surely another of the prettiest places in the country, but it is the ocean, just three miles away from our house, that calls me. Every time I see it, I want to explore the world that's waiting on the other side. And I will.

I hope you'll come with me.I promise to share the adventures, the frugal travel tips, and any other information I think you'd like to have in my blog, Tightwad Travel. So, come on! It's bound to be an exciting ride!

P.S. David and I moved back to Tucson in 2012. I finally convinced him Tucson had all the sunshine we were missing in Encinitas.